Scotland’s largest literary network, Literature Alliance Scotland (LAS) is urging arts organisations that engage freelance writers, editors, event organisers and arts administrators, proof readers, educators, publishers and programmers to value them better by offering fair and fast pay and fair working practices – or risk losing them from the sector completely.
The research, commissioned by LAS and conducted by Ruthless Research, provides a disturbing snapshot of the working patterns and conditions of Scotland’s current freelance and temporary workers in the literature, languages and publishing sector. The report highlights a complex and challenging picture that is reflected across Scotland’s creative industries. It shows that freelancers are withstanding an unsustainable financial and emotional level of precariousness. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, recent budget cuts and the cost-of-living crisis are all critical factors affecting freelance workers across the arts.